Well I guess you could say my worst day was the one when the teacher told me I had to carry his bagpipes as he played his instrument and when I objected he told me to go down to the cafeteria and fill up on Haggis. Wow, talk about oatmeal for breakfast. Then there was the shortbread cookies, not that was a thing that truly identified my love of Scotland. Unfortunately, I have never been to school in Glasgow, nevermind ever been to Scotland but you can be assured that if I had gone to school in Glasgow whatever one I was in was the worst one in the city.....

I cant make up my mind which way to vote on this 1. I attended both St Augustine's Primary and secondary schools in Milton and I left in 1976 with no qualifications but that never held me back as I got a job almost right away and was in employment constantly up until 3 years ago. At that time we were told that the Scottish Education system was 2Nd to none in the world, and I believe at the time it was, so what happened? The powers that be, in their infinite wisdom, decided to change how things were done and in turn ruined it. What happened to "If its not broke, don't fix it". As I don't have children of my own I don't feel able to judge whether its the education system thats letting our kids down or somethings else. What I do know is that at age 7 I could read fairly well but at age 9 my god-daughter struggles to read a complete sentence without making mistakes and my 7 year old nephew can barely read at all. Mary

Mary they did not want us to learn as they were taught to keep us down, this is the same with the conservatives, i never learned a thing at school because the school teachers thought we were scum we got the belt for nothing as they were sadistic bastards from the old school they went to maybe fee paying schools don't know on my high horse at this moment love you cousin x

An interesting topic to be sure. i went to saint gerards in govan for 4 1/2 years leaving half way through the 5th year. sad to say i experienced utter boredom for most of those years. and my lot was not too unusual because most of those who had started off with me in year 1 were gone well before my departure. pity. as it turned out i picked up on my education when i came to america and eventually ended my career as a professor in my adopted country.tr

I hate to sound sarcastic, but even though you are now a professor, you still wouldn't pass your English exam if you were attending a Glasgow school today. You have used 'i' instead of 'I' four times. You have started one sentence with the word 'sad'. It should be 'Sad'. You have also started another sentence with the word 'pity'. It should be 'Pity'. I was also taught in a Glasgow school that 'america' should be 'America'.

I am sure that you will agree that you have adopted the modern way of communication, i.e texting. This could be a contributing factor in why many school children are failing in English at schools.

I hate to sound sarcastic, but even though you are now a professor, you still wouldn't pass your English exam if you were attending a Glasgow school today. You have used 'i' instead of 'I' four times. You have started one sentence with the word 'sad'. It should be 'Sad'. You have also started another sentence with the word 'pity'. It should be 'Pity'. I was also taught in a Glasgow school that 'america' should be 'America'.

I am sure that you will agree that you have adopted the modern way of communication, i.e texting. This could be a contributing factor in why many school children are failing in English at schools.

I started primary school in Glasgow in 1936 when I was five. I attended Oakbank School in Garscube Road. We were all working class children. My memories of my time there are all happy ones.

I was evacuated to Canada in 1940 and attended a primary school there. In Canada at that time the starting age for school was six, so I had a head start and I was off to a flyer. Looking back now, I can say with confidence that the primary education I received in Oakbank School, was first class. Then, as now, if your parents took an interest in your education you had an advantage over those children whose parents had no interest.

The education I received in Canada was also of a high standard and I have many happy memories of my time there. However when I came home, I was placed in a junior secondary school because I was to old at thirteen to sit the 'qualy' exam. At this school I noticed a dramatic difference in the attitude of a small number of male teachers, compared to my primary schools teachers. Some of these seconday school teachers resorted to using the belt on pupils who were not grasping what was being taught. For some reason these teachers thought the slower pupils were being insolent and so deserved the belt. The fact was that these teachers were the failures. They were taking out their frustrations on some of the pupils because they themselves couldn't get a teaching post in a senior secondary school.

In spite of this, many of the boys who left school at 14 or 15 in those days, went on to do very well in life. I have met up with a few of them, and I am very proud of them.

Regarding modern schooling, I recently came across some exam papers for arithmetic and mathematics. I was shocked at how low a standard they were compared to the ones I took way back in the 1940's. I would like to see the Glasgow Guide asking employers what they think about modern education.

I also think in fairness to teachers nowadays, that they have much more to contend with than teachers of many years ago. It is a different world.

My sister was a secondary school teacher (head of language department) but she took early retirement this year as she was completely disillusioned with the way the education system has change over the years. She became a teacher because she wanted to teach but was spending more and more time dealing with paper work, redtape and a higherarchy who didn't care or have a clue as long as they looked good on paper.John, you obviously didn't have a great experience at school and your right that teachers then probably concentrated on the brighter kids to the detriment of the others but now that seems to have swung in the opposite direction and the brighter kids are being held back. When I was at St Augustines our classes were graded according to ability but again the powers that be decided that this wasn't fair to the pupils in the lower classes as they were being made to feel inferior. At the time I agrred but not so sure now. Mary

I started school 1950 Elmvale school Springburn, then to Miltonbank Milton and finally a junior secondary school Colston, I can say I disliked school never took time off unless unwellOf course even then we had bullies but you had to stand up to themI dont feel the school failed me.I was trained for trades, woodwork ,metal work, techie drawing, guess thats why I went into engineeringAll in all, guess school set me upBye for now, norrie

I attended school in Townhead St. Mungo`s Infants on to Glebe St. Primary the St. Roch`s Royston Rd.all between 1944thru.to55 I broke my heart the day i left,also i had the best teachers that my Parents could ask to educate their children and they had no worries of our safety and health.When i left school i had no Certs it made no difference i got into Broad St.pre school for Plumbing&and Pipe Fitting and the rest is history 72 yrs. no regrets.

In the first three days of this term alone, he sent home 151 pupils for wearing trainers with Velcro, the wrong trousers, an unsuitable school bag and, in one case, a gold hairband.

Scores more were sent to after-school detention for failing to bring a pencil, paper, rubber and ruler with them to class, while dozens were put in an isolation centre for disrupting lessons.

Just 48 hours after the iron rules were introduced, teachers reported they had doubled the amount of teaching time in lessons, as they no longer had to perform ‘crowd control’.

While a handful of parents have attacked Dr Fox’s draconian measures, branding them ‘ridiculous’, there has been a groundswell of support from many grateful parents who are desperate for their children to learn in school.

Is this perhaps the answer, or at least a part of the answer?I was never an unruly kid in school although I was quite often belted for being a bit of a chatterbox ... Who? Me, miss? but I do know that without the support of the strap our teachers might have had little or no control over classes. Getting the belt for forgetting to return homework was an accepted punishment; by both pupils and parents, although being strapped for making a mistake in calculation or spelling might have seemed unjust but it certainly was an aid in paying attention ... and that is where I think things might have started to go wrong in schools.When I read recently of some of the subject courses taken by school children which produced multi GCES and girls opting for hairdressing and not being allowed to use scissors during this course because of 'elf 'n safety regulations, I wondered which planet I was on ... remember all those wee scissors we used to cut paper with in infant school?

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"Destiny is a good thing to accept when it's going your way. When it isn't, don't call it destiny; call it injustice, treachery, or simple bad luck.” ― Joseph Heller, God Knows

1. Keep rules to a minimum 2. Never make a rule that you cannot enforce 3. The rules you do make you enforce with a rod of iron. These rules work for commanding men, training dogs and bringing up kids.

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"Destiny is a good thing to accept when it's going your way. When it isn't, don't call it destiny; call it injustice, treachery, or simple bad luck.” ― Joseph Heller, God Knows

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